September 11, 2008

My morning entertainment came from Merlin Mann, who runs the high temple of productivity porn, providing a reality check to many of his readers who thought that focusing exclusively on productivity is what will make them truly productive. Of course, pick any topic and you'll find some group of pathological fetishists who will pursue it to extremes. But seriously, kudos to Merlin, and thanks to jcw for the pointer.

September 08, 2008

So first the conservative govenment who called four by-elections (including here in Guelph) cancels them the day before by calling a general election... I'm sure not at all because the polls showed they were going to lose all of them. Oh yeah, and after making a big deal out of passing a law to prevent the prime minister from being able to call early elections.

Then, the broadcast consortium that hosts the debates (main public event of the campaign) decides to exclude Elizabeth May of the Green Party, a party that gets a modest but significant portion of the vote, and run candidates in most every riding in the country. Why? They asked the other parties if they'd want her in, and they said they wouldn't show up if she was in. Well, Harper and Layton for sure said that.

The Greens take voters from all the different parties, so big fucking surprise the other parties don't want them in. So that is a sensible basis for a decision to exclude her? Yikes.

What I really want to see is the media and everyone else crucify those parties that prevented a legitimate opponent (that most citizens wanted to see there) from participating in a debate. They should be embarrassed by that.

There's nobody out there that has really done the job of holding Harper to anything his government has done (accountability? transparency?) so I don't see that starting now.

And the broadcast consortium should get their ass kicked too... though by making clear their reasons in their press release, they may well have done this as a deliberate attack on the existing parties. Still, not impressed.

But realistically, the choices of main leaders offered to the electorate are so mind-numbingly weak and uninspired, it's hard to fault public apathy and the resulting low interest and voter turnout.